On January 22, 2002, Yves Saint Laurent showed his final couture collection. He closed the show – which consisted of a tour through 40 years of his work – arm-in-arm with his muses Laeticia Casta and Catherine Deneuve. Now, 13 years later, his house is making a couture comeback. In fact Hedi Slimane has already created the collection, his first since taking the helm in 2012, and has captured it in a series of black-and-white photographs, taken at the Hôtel de Sénecterre in Paris. Slimane has spent the last three years having the 300-year-old mansion restored, a building which will be the home of the house’s ateliers. 

“Hedi began to recompose the traditional couture ateliers of the house in 2012,” Saint Laurent revealed earlier today. “The ateliers also produce commissioned hand-made pieces for movie stars and musicians. Hedi determines which of these pieces will carry the atelier's hand-sewn couture label ‘Yves Saint Laurent’. These couture pieces may be women or men, a tuxedo or an evening dress, daywear or eveningwear. The ‘Yves Saint Laurent’ private atelier label is made of ivory silk satin and is numbered by piece. The atelier keeps a strict record of all the couture pieces in a gold monogram book.”

Saint Laurent is part of a wave of houses re-establishing the importance of couture. Last month, Fendi showed a haute fourrure collection, for the first time in its 90-year history. Meanwhile Jean Paul Gaultier and Viktor & Rolf have halted their respective ready-to-wear lines to concentrate on haute couture, providing conclusive proof that the old-world artisanal craft of couture has a place in today’s fast-paced fashion industry.